Association between Osteoporosis and Metabolic Syndrome in Postmenopausal Women

The risk of osteoporosis is higher in elderly and postmenopausal women. Several studies in different populations investigated the association between osteoporosis and metabolic syndrome (MS); however, the results are conflicting. In our population, no study has yet been conducted to evaluate this relationship in postmenopausal women. The aim of the study was to determine the relationship between osteoporosis and metabolic syndrome in postmenopausal women. In this study, a total of 131 postmenopausal women were included. Clinical history and anthropometric data were recorded and subjected to blood collection and scan for bone mineral density (BMD) and T-score at the lumbar spine and femoral neck and by dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DEXA). Osteoporosis and osteopenia were defined from T-score. The lipid profile was estimated by standard spectrophotometric methods. The mean±SD of age (years) of the postmenopausal women was 57.0±8.4. Bone mineral densities (g/cm2) were 0.78±0.17, 0.75±0.16, 0.72±0.16 and T-scores were -2.32±1.54, -1.52±1.29, -1.53±1.39 respectively in lumbar spine, right femoral neck and left femoral neck. Osteoporosis and osteopenia were found in 58 (44.3%) and 45 (34.4%) study subjects, respectively. Eighty-three (63.4%) of the study subjects have metabolic syndrome (MS). On multiple regression analysis, considering BMD at lumbar spine, right femoral neck or left femoral neck as dependent variable and age, body mass index (BMI), and MS as independent variables, β values for MS with BMD were -0.041 (p = 0.184), 0.002 (p = 0.938), 0.011 (p = 0.688) and with T-score were -0.330 (p = 0.241), -0.005 (p = 0.984), 0.151 (p = 0.599) at lumbar spine and right femoral neck and left femoral neck respectively. The coefficient of osteoporosis with MS in multiple logistic regression analysis was β = 1.311, (p = 0.003). In conclusion, osteoporosis is found to be positively associated with metabolic syndrome in postmenopausal women.